Begin forwarded message:
From: Halltennis@aol.com
Subject: SURE, THIS IS OLD HAT TO YOU, BUT…but….
Date: June 12, 1997 at 01:16:11 EDT
To: skt@vista.com, mcquaide@vista.com, joe@joe10.com
C is for Cookies by Kim Komando
Imagine that whenever you go to the supermarket, a computer keeps track of
everything you do. It knows the aisles you pushed your cart through, the
items you picked up and the items you returned to the shelf. You have no idea
that this covert collection of data took place until you see the results
thenext time you visit this particular market.
Instead of finding organized aisles, there is only one aisle that
containsonly the items you want. The market claims they offer their
shopperstimesaving convenience while simultaneously, uses the information it
collected about you to sell in-store advertising.
Sounds a little Orwellian, doesn’t it? Welcome to the Internet where
hundreds of big-name Web sites collect user traffic and prefer ence data,
often unbeknownst to users who might disagree if they were aware of it.
Do any amount of surfing on the Internet and I bet there are cookie files
on your PC’s hard disk. A cookie file saves information about you that allows
a Web site to recognize you when you visit that site again. Let me explain.
Say you go to the Microsoft Network home page (or another site) that
allows you to personalize the site using your preferences, such as your
favorite news categories. These preferences are stored in a cookie file
located on your PC. Next time you visit the site, the site secretly peeks in
the cookie file on your hard drive to see who you are and then, customizes
the site to match your preferences.
Use a subscription-based Internet site and your user ID and password are
probably stored in a cookie file. This prevents you from having to type both
in every time you visit the site.
At many sites, cookie files simply track user traffic and usage patterns.
WebTrends, for example, is one program that Web sites can use that saves
Mcookie files on visitors’ hard drives to generate site statistics. By doing
such, a site knows where the user came from, what they looked at, how long
they viewed a particular page, links clicked, and more. Web sites need
statistics to sell advertising.
Innovative marketing firms have changed the face of cookies. Rather than
storing site specific information in a cookie file, a unique number that
identifies the user is saved instead. When a user visits a site that knows to
look for this unique number, a profile of the user can be generated that is
based on the browsing habits of the individual.
Because the site needs to be aware of your unique number stored in the
cookie file, all your browsing cannot be tracked. But for those sites that do
know, online advertising can be modified on the fly to show the user
advertisements more geared to their interests. DoubleClick is one company
that supposedly has 10 million user profiles based on this use of cookies.
Cookies cannot divulge your e-mail address to a site, but they can contain
your user ID and password to a site. Cookies will not scan your hard drive
and report results back to a site. However, computer hackers have broken
holes through the security of older Web browsing programs. If you are not
using the current version of your Internet browsing program, you ought to.
Drop by the browser publisher’s home page for the latest release information.
While cookies offer convenience for users and research for Web sites, the
surreptitious gathering of information irks privacy advocates and for good
reason. It is possible for a Web site to read your entire cookie file
collection without your knowledge. Furthermore, users have to trust Web sites
that collect personal and usage information will not exploit the database
that can be easily generated. Unfortunately, there is no Internet central
authority that controls the potential abuse of user information.
To take a look at your cookies, Netscape stores cookie files in the
cookie.txt file located in the Netscape folder. Microsoft Internet Explorer
users will find their cookies with the Windows folder, Cookies folder. You
can open a cookie file using any text editor, although you probably won’t be
able to decipher the series of number and character codes.
If the use of cookies concerns you, get proactive. First, set up your Web
browser to warn you before you accept any cookies. Microsoft Internet
Explorer 3.0 or higher users can activate cookie warning messages by
selecting Options and then Advanced from the menu. Netscape Navigator 3.0 or
higher users can set up cookie alerts by selecting Options, Network
Preferences, and then the Protocol tab.
It’s important to note that you can only set cookie warnings and not
totally disable cookie files from landing on your PC. Activate the warnings
and guaranteed, you’ll quickly grow tired of clicking on the warning dialogue
box time and time again.
If you elect to not accept the cookie, you may not be able to use all the
features of a Web site. And if you do accept cookies, you really don’t know
what’s going on. While disabling cookies prevents sites from sending you
cookies, it doesn’t prevent them from uploaded cookies from your PC.
An alternative to warnings is to get Pretty Good Privacy’s ([415]
572-0430; http://www.pgp.com) $19.95 PGPcookie.cutter, a browser plug-in that
lets a user decide which cookies he or she wishes to allow or block from
sites on the Web. The Windows NT version is available and the company’s
Website says the Windows 95 and Mac versions are forthcoming.
Or you can handle cookies like I do. I simply delete the Netscape cookie
file or Internet Explorer cookie folder and start with a clean slate. The
downside is that if you hit a site that calls for preferences or passwords,
you will need to recreate them at the site.
Don’t worry about ruining your Internet software configuration when
deleting the cookie files. You’ll get the cookie file or folder back again,
without any action on your side. The browser recreates it for you when you
visit a site that sends cookies. By deleting the cookies on your PC, at the
very least, a site won’t be able to get information without your knowledge.
Copyright 1997, The Komando Corporation. All rights reserved. Kim Komando is
a TV host, syndicated talk radio host, Los Angeles Times syndicated
columnist, founder of the Komputer Klinic on America Online (keyword KOMANDO)
and the author of CyberBuck$ published by IDG Books. Visit Kim on the
Internet at http://www.komando.comL–h.
